A Raid for All Seasons: Flexible Raid Preview

Blizzard is introducing a new raid format in Patch 5.4! The new Flexible Raid system is designed to allow social groups a close-knit raiding experience outside of the usual 10 and 25 player formats.

This new raid format is intended to appeal to players who enjoyed the 10-player normal format in Wrath of the Lich King. It's something players can enjoy doing for fun on off-nights with their Real ID or Battle.net friends. There isn't an ilvl requirement for Flexible Raids, so new alts can tag along too!

This should also be a welcome alternate to LFR, where players can run through easy content solely with their friends and don't have to rely on PUGs to round out 25 players. Rewards are also slightly better in this format--higher ilvl gear, and the chance to complete achievements and win mounts.

A raid's difficulty will scale based on how many players are in the Flexible Raid. Between 10 and 25 people can be in this raid.

This raid format has a separate lockout than LFR, and Normal/Heroic. You can also complete achievements on this difficulty level.

Gear rewards will be between LFR and Normal quality. Players can also get some items not available in LFR.

There's no ilvl requirement for Flexible Raids, and raids can include Real ID or Battle.net friends cross-realm.

Nethaera

Raids in World of Warcraft have a long history of not just challenging players, but changing and evolving as the years and expansions go by. As with everything in the game, we’re always thinking about what more we can bring to raiding to improve the experience for an even wider range of players. While Normal and Heroic Raids are a great fit for many, we feel there’s another gap worth filling—and to that end, we’re currently working on the development of a new type of Raid for the next major content update: Flexible Raiding.

One Size Does Not Fit All

While it’s impossible to fit every player into a neat, tidy archetype, we recognize that we could be providing a better experience to one broad category of raider: social groups comprised predominantly of friends and family, and smaller guilds that do their best to include as many members in their Raid outings possible.

During the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, the 10-player Normal difficulty served these groups of players pretty well, but the unification of 10-player and 25-player into a single difficulty effectively eliminated that niche. While Raid Finder mode is extremely accessible, it doesn’t provide smaller groups with a tight-knit social experience while progressing through the content. In Patch 5.4, we’re planning to introduce a new mode of raiding that allows us to deliver the sort of experience that we think these players are looking for.

/Flex

To fill this void, we’re in the process of developing a new Flexible Raid system, which includes a new difficulty that sits between Raid Finder and Normal difficulty, while still allowing friends, family, or pick-up groups to play together. This difficulty will be available for premade groups of 10–25 players, including any number in between. That means whether you have 11, 14, or 23 friends available for a Raid, they’ll all be able to participate.

The Flexible Raid system is designed so that the challenge level will scale depending on how many players you have in the Raid. So if you switch between 14 players one week and 22 the next, the difficulty will adjust automatically. Keep in mind that unlike Raid Finder, no matchmaking is available, so you’ll need to make sure you invite people to attend—but if some can’t make it, it’s not the end of the world (or the Raid). You’ll also still be able to invite Real ID or Battle.net friends cross-realm. Who you choose to bring and what Item Level gear they’ll need to join your merry band is up to you, too—there’s no Item Level requirement for this Raid difficulty.

Dressed to Kill

A new Raid difficulty also means a new Item Level. Flexible mode will award loot with an Item Level that falls between Raid Finder and Normal quality, and will use the Raid Finder’s “per person” loot system, specialization choices, and bonus rolls, so you won’t need to worry about bringing the “wrong” person and having them win that piece of gear you’ve long been waiting for.

You Have the Keys

We plan to unlock the Flexible Raid difficulty in wings, similar to Raid Finder, but on an accelerated timetable. This new difficulty also has a separate Raid lockout from Raid Finder and Normal difficulty, allowing you to take part in all three if you so desire. You’ll also be able to complete portions of your “Glory of the Orgrimmar Raider” raid meta- achievement in Flexible mode as well as in Normal or Heroic to earn cosmetic rewards such as an epic mount. This will allow Raid groups the opportunity to switch off nights between raids to complete achievements. Finally, taking part in Flexible, Normal, or Heroic difficulty will provide access to additional rewards that won’t be available in Raid Finder.

Getting Down to Brass Tacks

As with any in-development feature, we’re continuing to refine how the Flexible Raid system will work, and we look forward to hearing your constructive feedback from your experiences on the Public Test Realm when the new system goes live.

Comments

Comment by SteveZombie

i love the idea but i think that the raid needs to be in one part instead of wings and that the ilvl needs to be between normal and heroic, if not no one will want to do it.

That would both kill the point of this whole thing partly being for those who can't commit to scheduled raiding, and %^&* all over Normals at the same time. It's a bold claim to say that no one will want to do it; you are not the entire WoW community.

Raiding is supposed to be a progression - not my newly minted 425 90 doing ToT with "flex raid" and potentially ending up getting better loot than LFR.

I'm interested to see how many groups you can find that will take you into ToT with 425 ilvl.And if you're getting the gear, well, isn't that the definition of progression?

Why can't they say specifically if this is for the 5.4 T16 raid only? Or is it?

Tier 16 is mentioned specifically in the announcement, but not that the feature will be SoO-exclusive. Would it matter if it wasn't?

Comment by hilltopperpete

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 08:23:12 -0500

This will really help guilds who get stuck actually progress. Even though my wife and I were in a server-first heroic guild, I wouldn't have minded an extra healer helping my casual guild to learn how to do Elegon, Garalon, or Amber Shaper (extra tank! 25m is so unfair lol). 10-man difficulty would be a lot more fun as 12-man because role ratios so heavily favor 25m raiding.

The choice between 2 and 3 healing for 10m is just brutal sometimes, and this feature would cut out a ton of roadblocks to learning and progressing (would have helped immensely in this tier on all those fights that blizz screwed the pooch with 10m difficulty).

I'd be interested in a feature that allowed you to "extend" or "convert" your regular raid lock into a Flex raid, so you can get over the hump, but receive a lesser reward if you can't quite do it on normal mode yet, without having to start fresh. Org raid should be like BWD- sieging a city shouldn't be linearly gated- you should have to roust out pockets of resistance to make it safe to kill the end boss- heck- make the end boss available to pull right away and buff him significantly (like 20% hp and damage each) based on how many of his generals are up, similar to Yogg-saron.

Comment by Tarlach

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 08:39:47 -0500

I tend to wonder if this isn't a test for the next xpac. I don't see this three track split as a sustainable thing. I bet they are wanting to move to dynamic raid sizes in general, but want to test the waters in 5.x.

Comment by Mantrhax

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:00:41 -0500

Why a group of 10 people will do a Flex if the normal gear is better ? dont get it... would be great to raid with 6-7

Comment by Mack93

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:38:52 -0500

This allows guilds attempting to move into 25 man transition and test people more thoroughly, while still maintaining being able to do the core 10 man raid group.

I'm seeing this as follows:

LFR - I'd like to raid.Flex - I'd like to raid with people I know (a lot more people in this level than in the next)Normal - I'd like to raid with competenceHeroic - I'd like to raid with precision

LFR has that, I just wanna raid feel to it without any strings attached, Flex will have that strings attached feel but still have the "I wanna raid" tacked onto it. Normal mode is and SHOULD feel like an introduction into heroic difficulties, and Heroic should maintain its stance as hard (Heroic Lei Shen).

In my opinion, this will let people learn mental aptitude needed to progress into normal raiding, 10 AND 25 depending on how large a group they consistently end up running in the Flex raids.

^ This is exactly what I was thinking. It's just another learning block for newer players.

Comment by Mack93

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:54:07 -0500

Dynamic raiding seems almost inevitable. But yes, these last few patches will probably be a whole lot of prepping/testing before the new expansion.

Comment by murphmanfa

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:02:29 -0500

This is a bad thing because people will be playing the game in a way I don't like and that has a huge impact on my WoW experience. >:C

</sarcasm>

Comment by Cowworth

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:03:50 -0500

I hope they have a unique colour of armour for this, it would make a much wider choice of transmog preferences, it sucks we had stuff like; Yellow Scourgelord, Silver Elementium Deathplate and Green Cataclysmic Gladiator's DK set (Yes, all DK sets, that's what I only know!) never make it to live servers, would love to see all colours possible make it to live now with this.

Comment by rinkworks

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:06:12 -0500

Shocked at all the negativity, but I guess I shouldn't be. Only WoW fans can QQ over Blizzard adding an optional feature.

Sounds like a completely useless feature, raiding was never meant to be available for absolutely everyone.

Straw man argument. Flex raiding doesn't open the gates any wider than LFR itself does, but even if it did, what's the big deal? Do raiders actually enjoy the game less if more people can do it? That mentality needs to die, and anything Blizzard does to make the content (not necessarily the rewards, but the content) more accessible to their user base is a good thing, provided they don't screw over the hardcore experience. Providing an additional raiding option while leaving the harder ones alone does not screw over the hardcore experience.

So... now we have to do LFR, Normals AND Flexibles to get geared?

Yes, Blizzard is actually forcing you to do all these things as part of the EULA. No, if you do just LFR and Normal (what I presume you're doing now), you would presumably gear up at the same rate. You can do Flexes too and probably gear up faster, but unless we find out the drop rates for gear have been decreased to compensate for the possibility or expectation that people will run all raiding modes, the only complaint here is that Blizzard added something more that you can optionally do in the game.

so not only are you gettin crap gear.. you're gettin the horrible lfr loot system stuffed down your throat as well... jeez -.-

It's obviously not for you, judging by your calling the gear crap. But lots of people only do LFR. For those people who have LFR figured out but can't hack the 10-man difficulty, this is a step up.

This seems pretty bad. Raiding is supposed to be a progression - not my newly minted 425 90 doing ToT with "flex raid" and potentially ending up getting better loot than LFR. They dumb and water the game down every chance they get.

Such a thing would speed up the progression, but something tells me a newly minted 425 90 isn't going to be able to hack ToT Flex. But if someone took them along for the ride, what's the big deal? It's still a progression, just a faster one, and they still don't get as far as people running normals or heroics. Meanwhile, normal and heroic difficulty is still as difficult as before and rewarding as before, so if you're interested in doing the hard stuff, well, it's still just as hard.

Why a group of 10 people will do a Flex if the normal gear is better ? dont get it... would be great to raid with 6-7

Raiding with 6-7 would definitely be cool, but that's pretty close to the dungeon experience. I'm just guessing they want to preserve the flavor of a larger group by having that lower limit. But the answer to your first question is easy: if that group of 10 people can't pull off the normal difficulty (which is pretty hard) but are bored with LFR (which is mostly easy, as you just follow the crowd and shoot what everybody else shoots), now you've got something more challenging for you that isn't completely inaccessible. And once you do that for a while, maybe you get good enough to do those normals. More people getting better at the game and participating in the harder stuff is good for all of us.

Comment by Iceveiled

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:13:51 -0500

This is too much. Why not just have 10 man LFR and have it so you and 9 other guildies can go into a raid and select LFR difficulty?

Comment by lankybrit

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:22:59 -0500

I don't get it. Why doesn't it have better loot, or the same loot, as normal.

Hey we have 11 for a flex Raid. Screw that, you're out and we're going to do 10 man normal because it gives better gear.

Hey we have 20 for a flex Raid. Screw that, let's split into 2 10s because they give better gear.

Not that any of this affects me though :)

Cheers.

Comment by GreyGoomba

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:28:37 -0500

This is freaking great, and might be the first time I ever get to participate in a raid. I don't know why there is so much cynicism about something that's purely optional and to the side. This isn't "something else that now you have to do", this is a damn video game and you are supposed to be playing it to have fun.

Comment by Adamsm

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:29:03 -0500

It doesn't give the same loot because it's not meant to be Normal mode, simple as that.

Comment by sondave78

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 10:45:14 -0500

indeed ty blizz..

Comment by Shurkeckt

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 11:06:23 -0500

I like this idea.

I used to be in a guild that was sold as a social/progression guild (I know that they seem exclusive of each other to a lot of people, but they can work!). I used to actually used to enjoy spending a raid night wiping on one boss when learning what the deal was - every extra percent that health bar went down from attempt to attempt was reward enough. When the boss went down - TeamSpeak used to erupt with cheering - getting loot was a bonus (Who doesn't like a new purple shiny?)

Outside of raid nights there were always people willing to help others with dungeons / HC's / quests etc etc - the people were all friendly and were invited to sign up for raids as and when they could make it (Some of use were more 'Hardcore' than others on this point).

At present, I can only really do LFR due to not having a clue as to my availability from one day to the next due to work. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy getting the purple shinies but the sense of achievement isn't to be found on LFR (First one I did after a break throughout the whole of Cata we ended up downing all the bosses first time round without any real effort on my part other than looking at a few youtube vids to make sure I knew what was coming).

This might actually get me really interested in raiding again, asking people for their battlenet ID after a good scenario / HC and trying to build up my friends list.

OFC - if the difficulty is too close to LFR it probably won't be that great, but we can only see what the 5.4 PTR brings on that front I suppose.

Comment by ElhonnaDS

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 11:31:08 -0500

Well, it'll speed up gearing, and make the pug-raid a viable concept. I'll probably run them for extra chances at mounts, and such. I don't know that I think it was needed, but I'm not worried that it exists.

Comment by mmorpgaddict

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 11:43:18 -0500

So... now we have to do LFR, Normals AND Flexibles to get geared? Great, cause it's not like I felt I had to raid all the freaking time before...

I know right! This is a slap in the face! How dare Blizzard give you more options on how to play the game! Seriously though... sounds like you should take a break from WoW, because you seem to be treating WoW as a job rather than a GAME

Comment by Batbirtlekk

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 12:00:36 -0500

"Glory of the Orgrimmar Raider"

Thanks for throwing in a hint for the upcoming patch!

Comment by MartinThunder321

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 12:41:27 -0500

Yeah, uhm well, if you think about this logically... Blizzard in fact, IS killing raiding and I can tell you why.First of all, 4 modes of raiding LFR-FLEX-NORM-HERO would kinda obviously mean that there would be many different levels of gear. NOW... let us just say for argument's sake that I WANT to start with LFR and work my way up. My question is; (I am not against so many modes) do I really want to work through four different modes of the same dungeon BUT also with the fact that the first two are cake and differ to much from the other two? And since I got so many freebies from cake mode, I will not, just not, play as much due to boredum... Point being... BRING BACK SEPERATE RAID LOCKOUTS PLEASE... Remember... 10 and 25 Normal / 10 and 25 Herioc? That would work only if blizz would friggin fix server deadness... BUT WAIT LOL... Remember how we can invite real IDs? PROBLEM SOLVED! :P

Omg now that I think about it... There is almost no point of doing heriocs or normals if you think about it! There is not much else to do in those mode, therefore the game (at least for every patch) is won quickly and so there is one question to ask; can Blizzard really make money off this game like they did in the past, and, is there really much of a point to continue playing after you got all the stuff from cake modes?

Comment by WoWman95

on Fri, 07 Jun 2013 12:43:39 -0500

I must say, I'm a fan of this, but probably only because of the achievement/mounts. At the moment, I'm working on H's with my guild, but some of the H bosses we don't have the achievement for *cough cough Ji-Kun cough* so this will be great for H progression guilds so they don't have to waste a lockout. I can also see top guilds like BL and Method using the Flex Raid in order to get alts gear at a faster pace.